From the European Commission website:
"A city is not chosen as a European Capital of Culture solely for what it is, but mainly for what it plans to do for a year that has to be exceptional. Its programme for the year must meet some specific criteria.
The initial idea for the "European city of culture" is said to have originated from a chat between the former Greek and French Ministers for Culture, Merlina Mercouri and Jacques Lang, while they were waiting for a flight at Athens airport in January 1985.
Ms Mercouri followed the idea up and, in June 1985, the European City of Culture project was launched with the aim of helping to bring the people of Europe closer together.
From 2011, two cities – from two different EU countries – will be European Capitals of Culture each year.
The procedure for choosing a city starts around 6 years in advance – though the order of Member States entitled to host the event is fixed before then and is organised in 2 stages. It involves a panel of independent experts in the cultural field responsible for assessing the proposals."
And the other city is......drum roll.....Turku, Finland!
No comments:
Post a Comment